What I Know About Wine

What I know about wine can fit in the top of one of those mini-toothpaste tubes they give you on the airplane for overnight flights.  Oh, I’ve had my fair share of wine.  I tripped blithely through a Chardonnay phase (obligatory?) in my early 20’s – imagining Kendall Jackson Chardonnay connoted “elegance” at fraternity parties, as those nearby drank from a large trashcan filled with grain alcohol and fruit.  I drifted insecurely through a Pinot Grigio phase, the first glass ordered to signal to my date that I knew how to pronounce it.  By my 30’s, I had settled confidently into Sauvignon Blanc, with the occasional prosecco to be festive.  Not really one for red, I first experimented with Chianti (college dates at the Olive Garden), segued distractedly into a Merlot phase, (until I saw Sideways and was shamed out of it), and now rely on Pinot Noir as my red of choice.  I do pretend to like Cabernet Sauvignon to impress my husband and my dad.  Shiraz is fun to say, so sometimes I order it, despite my lack of taste for spice.  Suffice it to say, despite my years of struggling through wine choice, I’m still a wine novice.

When my best friend Elena and I traveled around the world for four months a few years ago, we had chance after chance to refine our palates.  Our carnivorous tour through Argentina alone provided ample opportunity.  A glance at our trip photos, alas, reveals our gawking at “snake wine” in Vietnam, slurping Gato Negro (a red “wine product’) out of a juice box in Peru, and a sucking a wine-vodka mix from straws out of a bucket in Thailand.  Learning had not occurred.

Another one of my best friends, Pam, lives close to Napa Valley in Northern California.  Together with our dear friend Cat, we’ve together visited vineyard upon vineyard.  But somehow my favorite Napa memory continues to be the bacon at the Carneros Inn.  (In my defense, their bacon is ridiculously delicious, as are their donuts – homemade!)  Outside of Napa, Cat, Pam and I have shared countless bottles of wine – over new relationships, breakups, new jobs, resignations, marriages, and babies.   And in those cases, perhaps it’s fitting that I remember the heart-to-hearts, rather than the wine we drank.

After a life half-lived of substandard attention to wine detail, we have settled in for the summer in one of the world’s greatest wine-producing regions.  Now in Stellenbosch, I am beginning to focus afresh.  We – Conor, our friend Jill and I – have embarked upon a Tour Of Wines.  There are about 100 wine farms (conservatively) in this region.  Breathtakingly stunning vineyards.  You can drive right onto them, park just yards from the cellar, quickly to be served a multi-glass tasting for about 30 rand, maximum. (That’s about $3.50.)  Some vineyards even pair their wines with a chocolate and/or olive tasting at the same time.  Which is – I’ll shamelessly quote Conor’s best friend Charlie here singing Yo Gabba Gabba – “A party in our tummy (so yummy, so yummy)!”

In Africa for a month now, here’s where we’ve been:  Tokara, Asara, Verlegegen, Lourensford, Beyerskloof, Fairview, Spier, Waterford, and Guardian Peak.  Each wine farm surreal, like a movie set.  Orange groves, fresh lavender, roaming mastiffs, sundrenched stone walls, bare, winter plantings still a fresh green-on-brown. In sharp contrast to our volunteer work, we wonder often if we “deserve” to be there.  We endeavor to take very little for granted here.  Each sip is well attended to, received with the gratitude one has when on a self-induced, momentary “pause” in life.

In all this sipping, here are five lessons I’ve recently learned about wine.

1)      De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum.   That is, there is no accounting for taste.  For the collector, wine may be objective, but for the drinker, wine is most definitely subjective.  Whatever you yourself like, you may safely classify as “good” wine.  My friend Michelle, a gorgeous Australia expat who owns David Family wines, told us this during a tutorial in New York a few months ago.  “Wine is meant to be enjoyed!  If you like it, then it’s good, to you.  Drink only what you like!”  So obvious, so true.  I’ve now sampled a huge array of objectively “fantastic” wines here in South Africa, yet one of my favorites has been the Vergelegen Semillon, which the vineyard reports it will soon discontinue due to its lack of sophistication.  No matter, it was the highlight of last Friday for me and I’m unapologetic.  I have years to grow in sophistication – my 40’s-80’s to enjoy heavy, complex reds.  Pour me a glass of 10-year old Cabernet Franc when I’m wearing a flowered mumu, a purple hat, and a slash of red lipstick totally outside the lines, and I’ll swirl my glass, sniff appreciatively, and comment on the complementing notes of beetroot and fiddleheaded fern, with the subtle aftertaste of Cuban cigarbox.  But I’ve got time to get there.  I’m in no hurry.

2)      Keep Trying New Wines.  The paragraph above notwithstanding, your palate won’t improve if you don’t push the envelope.  Finn loves oatmeal – LOVES it.  But every now and then I’ll sneak him some green curry or some chick pea masala.  Granted, my conniving usually backfires, and it’s messy and on occasion a bit frightening.  But only through forcing new things on Finn did find out he adores calamari and black olives.   And so it goes with wine.  The more Cabs I drink, the closer I am to actually liking them.  I can now tell a special Chenin Blanc from an average.  Comparing two Sauvignon Blancs, I find that I prefer the more dry to the more fruity.  My tastes are maturing.  (Would that it were my personality as well.)

3)      Don’t Be Embarrassed to Admit You Know Nothing.   I learn SO much more when I’m not afraid to admit I’m an idiot about wines.  No one knows me here, except that I’m a blonde American. So I have lots of leeway to admit ignorance.  I’ve asked question after question, and these gracious winemakers never hesitate to answer with great attention to detail.  We even got a long cellar tour after my 27^th question the other night.  Winemaking 101, it was awesome.  But people go to school for years to learn this stuff.  There’s a lot to learn.  And when in doubt but afraid to reveal it, Wikipedia is Your Friend.  Google doesn’t judge.

4)      Wine Paired With Food Enhances Both.  So yes, I know this one is intuitive, but aside from red with meat and white with fish, I’ve never truly paired wine deliberately with my food.  I’ve ignored how a good Sauterne can transform an already delicious seared fois gras, or how the right Pinot Gris can make the mussel soup really pop.  Many of the vineyard food menus here offer lessons on food pairing, which I’ve loved.  Dessert pairing is even more fun.  At one lesson, we had chili chocolate with a spicy Shiraz (yummy spice!), rock salt chocolate with a rich Cabernet Sauvignon (crazy delicious), and rose-flavored chocolate with a fruity desert wine (Ack!  Totally disgusting!  Why, rose flavor, why?  Mouth full of soap, so awful!)  A well chosen wine can really enhance an already great meal.  (And while it can’t save what is already terrible, enough wine can dull your taste buds. That’s why I traditionally over-pour at my dinner parties.)

5)      Use All Five Senses to Enjoy Wine.  There are always at least five ways to enjoy a good glass of wine.  The smell (flavors on the nose, anticipation of what’s to come).  The sight (clarity denoting age, color signaling flavor).  The sound (the clink of a toast, and, for us, Conor’s variety of “wine songs” – there’s a haunting Gregorian chant about Beyerskloof in heavy rotation these days).  The touch (the delicate stem of a chilled white wine glass or the warm bowl of a large red wine glass).  And the taste (obviously).  So many things to enjoy; so many reasons to slow down.

Conor and I each come from a LONG line of drinkers.  We are both Irish after all.  Our great, great, great, great grandfathers fortified our genes long ago via a long, slow pickling process.  But for us (fairly new, middle-aged parents), one glass is plenty.  We rarely finish the glass, in fact, and as it turns out we enjoy it much more that way.  So – if you’re reading this and are planning to be on the roads in Cape Town over the next month, not to worry, we’re good to drive.

(Is it left side of the road or right again?)

(Just kidding.)

Signing off to go enjoy The Soccer.  Bafana Bafana, South Africans, Bafana Bafana!!  (And tomorrow – GO USA! Beat England! Or at least don’t lose too badly!)

Chat soon,

Liz